Seeking advice from cruisers who have visited Iceland/Norway

[losfp]

Hi all. We've done a few cruises before but we're complete newbies to Northern Europe cruises. Heck, we've never even been to Europe before, but we're going to fix that in Oct 2023 when we do Europe and RCI for the first time.

 

We're looking for options for our 2027 20th anniversary trip. For our honeymoon we did Alaska, and returned there in 2017 for our 10th anniversary. We were going to go back again for 2027 but we're looking into alternatives, and Norway/Iceland came up.

 

I've done a bit of reading (the pinned post about Norwegian Fjords has been a goldmine of info!!) and from what I can work out, the main lines do these rough types of cruises:

 

- Norwegian fjords - mixture of deep fjords and coastal towns

- North cape / midnight sun - these go further north

- Iceland - visit a couple of Norway ports on the way up and maybe Scotland on the way down

 

These all sound amazing, but there's kind of no cruises that do ALL of it from what I can see with the main cruise lines. If we want to hit all the spots, we would have to do small/luxury cruises or do multiple back-to-back cruises.

 

My question for people who have visited this region before, and hopefully have been to both Norway and Iceland... if you had to do one of the above cruises, which one would you pick and why? And if you had to do only two, which two and why? We have a ton of time before 2027 so I'm just fishing for information now.

 

A bit more context: We absolutely love Alaska, it's one of our favourite places to cruise. We love Glacier Bay, Tracy Arm, and the charming small ports. We've also done New Zealand and love scenic cruising in Fiordlands. We prefer a small/medium sized ship and are all about the destination, not the ship.

[bearette]

You can combine some to form b2b or side2side ( when you change ships). It is too far out to find an itinerary, as 2024 is as far as they are going right now. We are doing MSC next summer and it is doing Greeland, Iceland and Scotland.  

 

You have a lot of time to plan, so I would research each port and make a top list, then when the itineraries come out you see which matches your top choices. Cost, time/date and ship will come into play. You may find two different cruise lines have a mix of what you want since you said the ship isn't important. Booking far out the ports may change so keep that in mind.

 

Also, consider Embarkation port. If you want to do a pre or post cruise stay.

 

I haven't done any yet so can't give an opinion, only Mediterranean and Baltic.

[hallasm]

I would think it is three different 8 day cruises.  Alternative is a 14 day cruise to two of the destinations but when I look at itineraries for 14 day trips the deep fjords are often not included.  Furthermore, I can't quite see that a cruise to Iceland is a good idea - you will get much more out of a land trip.  Personally, I want to combine a Norway Fjord cruise with a few days in Iceland.  Svalbard and Longyearbyen is more of an expedition cruise - an alternative is to fly to Svalbard and take a circumnavigation of the Svalbard islands with, for example, Hurtigruten expedition.
Make sure to research Norway ports of call - some Norwegian ports offered are very tiny towns with few excursion options. Deep fjord ports are Geiranger, Flåm, Olden or Eidfjord. Nice coastal cities are Bergen, Ålesund. Stavanger or Trondheim.

[CCJack]

Yikes !   Asking us to choose between Norway and Iceland is like asking to name your favorite child !    We have been on one Norwegian Fjord Cruise, one Iceland cruise (with stops in Ireland), and one Alaska cruise, along with several Mediterranean and Caribbean cruises.    After much thought, I would say the name of my favorite child is...... Norway.   

 

When God designed Norway, he had cruising in mind.  The sail into the Fjords is really spectacular and the coastal cities also are nice views from the ship.    Norway has pristine towns, friendly people and beautiful natural sights.   You are going to want to plan excursions however, not a lot of strolling though towns on your own, expect for maybe Bergen.  Our favorite excursion was at Flam.  We took the train up the mountain and biked down.  Very fun.

 

Iceland is very interesting and unique in it own right.   Hallasm is correct in that it could be a land vacation rather than a cruise as most sights are inland.  However nothing wrong with choosing a hotel that floats and moves.....just for the convenience.  You just won't see sights from your ship like in Norway.     Iceland is all about the geology, volcanoes, hot springs, guysers, lava fields, fissures, etc.   It is vast and you can see forever.  There are few trees and virtually no native mammals.  (you will not see the wildlife that you likely saw in Alaska.)   One advantage to Iceland it is remote from Europe and thus has a unique culture and population, there is something to be said about traveling off the beaten path.    We enjoyed our trip to Iceland very much.

 

If you have not been to Europe much, then your Embarkation port is important, as bearette says.   You get another mini vacation for 3 or 4  days for not much more effort.  Amsterdam is one of Europe's most interesting cities (although it is crowded).   Very convenient as the ships leave from the city center and if you choose the right hotel you can walk to your ship and also to the interesting sights in the city.  Short 20 min train from airport.    Southampton is less interesting, but you could stay in London with all that London has to offer.   A bit more of an effort to get from London to the ship in  Southampton  than walking to your ship in  Amsterdam, however. 

 

Have fun planning.    

[edinburgher]

These all sound amazing, but there's kind of no cruises that do ALL of it from what I can see with the main cruise lines

 

We thought of that initially too but never did find one that visited everywhere.  We ended up doing several in order to cover all the Scandinavian countries, areas and ports we wanted to visit. And there is also a fair amount of scenic cruising in these areas .

 

Thinking you will either need to compromise, or plan on doing at least 3, possibly 4 to cover your wish list. They don't all need to be done at the same time and you could spread them over a few years, although travelling such a long distance, maybe a couple of b2bs might suit you better.

 

Be aware that the more countries an itinerary covers, the fewer ports in each you are likely to visit, so perhaps focus more on only one or two countries initially, which will give you a much more enjoyable in-depth experience, rather than one of these "if this is Monday it is Norway, if it is Tuesday it must be Iceland" experiences.

 

You could also look at the possibility of adding in some Greenlandic ports should you find an itinerary which appeals and which also offers these.

 

 

Edited November 12, 2022 by edinburgher

[puppycanducruise]

We've been to Norway (not all the way to North Cape) and Iceland.

Norway is wonderful,  our only complaint was that we were only there for a week.

Holland America does a Northern Isles cruise that includes Iceland and a few ports in Norway.  It also stops in Shetland (enjoyed our stop there) and a couple of stops in Scotland.   Check it out.

[Nitemare]

Iceland is REALLY easy to do as a land tour and the best part of it for us is you can just be alone with your loved one(s).  No cruiseship tours and buses full of other people, just you and your car and the beautiful landscape.  You don't get that from a ship.  You can do that in Alaska, too, but Iceland is small and easy to do on your own.

[Capt_BJ]

 

Viking Ocean 15 days

 

You get a deep f' ,,,, you go north .... WAY north ..... and you get some Iceland too . . . .

[losfp]

Thank you all so much for all your thoughts. 🙂

 

I will absolutely consider a land tour of Iceland. It seems like the sort of place that you could easily self drive as there's no big cities to worry about. But as someone mentions, it will all depend on the sort of experience you want. We like to visit a region via cruise first as it's easier (especially with kids in tow) and then we can decide to come back separately to any places that we particularly like.

 

We've done self drive tours of Alaska (Anchorage, seward, denali, talkeetna) and New Zealand's South Island so it'd be pretty easy I think.

 

Lots of fun planning ahead 🙂

[Scottishclover]

Norway by water, Iceland by land. Norway’s fjords/ coast best done on a cruise but you would be missing so much by only cruising to Iceland. We were there for a week in summer 2020 and it was amazing. So much to see and do, especially if you are outdoorsy. In a week we only really managed to see South Iceland but the natural attractions were breathtaking. Cruising the fjords is lovely and there’s enough variation between the different ports too. 

 

I would do a cruise in Norway then fly to Iceland and do a land tour there. Without a shadow of a doubt. I know you mentioned Scotland but again I would say it needs to be a land tour to see the best of the scenery. In truth, all these countries - Iceland, Norway, Scotland - require you to get outdoors and  a bit off the beaten track to experience the country at its best.

[ljandgb]

Another vote for Iceland by land. We did a 3 day stopover on our way to a Baltic cruise, 4 kids in tow, and my parents, with us.

 

It is easy to drive, as there are few roads.  There are also multi-day tours that will take you along the south coast and include lodging and food, and day tours you could easily take from Reykjavik.  Reykjavik Residence Hotel has multi-room suites that are great for larger families.

 

Beware. That 3 day trip to Iceland has turned into a near obsession for me.  I'm going back for trip #3 in May after a pandemic hiatus.

[losfp]

10 hours ago, Scottishclover said:

I know you mentioned Scotland but again I would say it needs to be a land tour to see the best of the scenery.

Oh I agree. I only mentioned Scotland because many of the Iceland cruises that I see seem to stop at a couple of Scottish ports on the way back to Southampton or Amsterdam or whatever. My parents have been on a British Isles cruise but I am not sure personally. I would think that a land tour would be best for that region.. I'd particularly like to visit a number of distilleries in Scotland.

 

Thanks again everyone for your great advice.

[PhillyTravelBug]

I would love to do Iceland by land, however; Iceland and Norway are on our list, so a cruise was most convenient.  We are booked on Norwegian Prima next year for an 10 day cruise starting in Reykjavik (with two days prior to start of cruise), two stops in Iceland, 3 in Norway, Amsterdam, Brussels, and ending in Southhampton.  We will probably add two days on at the end in London.   

We have too many destinations we want to see, so cruising is usually our go to.

[Hezu]

On 11/12/2022 at 2:22 AM, losfp said:

Hi all. We've done a few cruises before but we're complete newbies to Northern Europe cruises. Heck, we've never even been to Europe before, but we're going to fix that in Oct 2023 when we do Europe and RCI for the first time.

 

We're looking for options for our 2027 20th anniversary trip. For our honeymoon we did Alaska, and returned there in 2017 for our 10th anniversary. We were going to go back again for 2027 but we're looking into alternatives, and Norway/Iceland came up.

 

I've done a bit of reading (the pinned post about Norwegian Fjords has been a goldmine of info!!) and from what I can work out, the main lines do these rough types of cruises:

 

- Norwegian fjords - mixture of deep fjords and coastal towns

- North cape / midnight sun - these go further north

- Iceland - visit a couple of Norway ports on the way up and maybe Scotland on the way down

Note that if your plan is for October, then you won't encounter midnight sun as that phenomenon occurs only in summer (and late May). However, in October you might have a chance to see northern lights as there will be less daylight hours and dark nights. Also if I'm not mistaken, in October there are fewer cruise offerings in these parts of the world compared to the peak season in the summer.

[coljack]

On 11/11/2022 at 5:22 PM, losfp said:

Hi all. We've done a few cruises before but we're complete newbies to Northern Europe cruises. Heck, we've never even been to Europe before, but we're going to fix that in Oct 2023 when we do Europe and RCI for the first time.

 

We're looking for options for our 2027 20th anniversary trip. For our honeymoon we did Alaska, and returned there in 2017 for our 10th anniversary. We were going to go back again for 2027 but we're looking into alternatives, and Norway/Iceland came up.

 

I've done a bit of reading (the pinned post about Norwegian Fjords has been a goldmine of info!!) and from what I can work out, the main lines do these rough types of cruises:

 

- Norwegian fjords - mixture of deep fjords and coastal towns

- North cape / midnight sun - these go further north

- Iceland - visit a couple of Norway ports on the way up and maybe Scotland on the way down

 

These all sound amazing, but there's kind of no cruises that do ALL of it from what I can see with the main cruise lines. If we want to hit all the spots, we would have to do small/luxury cruises or do multiple back-to-back cruises.

 

My question for people who have visited this region before, and hopefully have been to both Norway and Iceland... if you had to do one of the above cruises, which one would you pick and why? And if you had to do only two, which two and why? We have a ton of time before 2027 so I'm just fishing for information now.

 

A bit more context: We absolutely love Alaska, it's one of our favourite places to cruise. We love Glacier Bay, Tracy Arm, and the charming small ports. We've also done New Zealand and love scenic cruising in Fiordlands. We prefer a small/medium sized ship and are all about the destination, not the ship.

We loved Norway.  The fjords are fantastic, especially Geranger.  Bergan is a great city to visit.  Read about the "Norway in a Nutshell" independent tour.   Strongly recommend you do NOT take the excursion that "visits a glacier."  It is several hours on a bus to see a small glacier in the distance.  Nothing like Alaska.  All we got out of it was a wasted day and back aches.  Norway for the fjords: Alaska for the glaciers.  Can't comment on Iceland--we are doing that next June.

[janetcbl]

On 11/12/2022 at 12:10 PM, Capt_BJ said:

 

Viking Ocean 15 days

 

You get a deep f' ,,,, you go north .... WAY north ..... and you get some Iceland too . . . .

Check Viking Ocean Cruises. Northern Europe is their best territory.

[rmalbers]

VO has a few Iceland options. 

[janetcbl]

41 minutes ago, rmalbers said:

VO has a few Iceland options. 

I would respectfully disagree. There are at least nine different cruises listed on the website, and that doesn’t include combinations you can put together.

[rmalbers]

2 hours ago, janetcbl said:

I would respectfully disagree. There are at least nine different cruises listed on the website, and that doesn’t include combinations you can put together.

I was thinking this one from NYC to iceland, that direction:  Iconic Iceland, Greenland & Canada

[brzymom]

Hi! So happy to come across this post!! 

 

Friends and I booked an Iceland/Scotland cruise for September 2024 out of Southampton. Have ALWAYS wanted to visit Iceland. Then I got an ad for Viking Ocean for a Northern Lights tour, out of Tilbury to Bergen or vice-versa that includes Amsterdam, Nervik, Tromsa and Alta. That would be February or March. Went in search of a Roll Call and there was none. Searched by port and here I am.

 

Appreciate all the great info. Now I think we are going to do both!!

 

So many places to see!! Thanks for some really helpful information! Happy Cruising!!

[janetcbl]

17 hours ago, rmalbers said:

I was thinking this one from NYC to iceland, that direction:  Iconic Iceland, Greenland & Canada

You are correct.  That tour pretty well covers what VO has to offer in Iceland. Perhaps plan to stay in Iceland on your own if you want to spend more time there. Iceland is easy to get around on your own, via public transportation or renting a car.

[ljandgb]

I will beg to differ only regarding public transportation.  There is no effective public transport for tourists outside of Reykjavik.  It is, however, very easy to self drive or take any number of tours from big bus to small jeep.

[hampshirelad]

Over the years we have been to all these destinations. I am not sure from your picture if you travel as a family . I would see these as trips for when the kids have left home. The overriding issue is that the main line cruise company's have slowly been cutting back on the length of their cruises and what was the standard 14 day trip has now been cut back to 9 and 10 days. This limits the distance of travel . Iceland is all about the geology and is a bit barren. If you are into bubbling mud and hot springs and Tectonic plates then this is for you. The weather can change in a flash. The sea journey can be rough and many don't turn up for breakfast.

 

The scenery of Norway is far superior to the Rockies and dare I say it Milford Sound. The Fjords are head and shoulders above any similar destination. An ideal trip would be from say Stavanger up to the North Cape. Stops do not always have a great choice of activities as Norway has never sought to capitalise on Tourism. As has been said don't spend time looking for Glaciers. Look at a company Hurtigruten

https://www.hurtigruten.co.uk/

 

It maybe what you are looking for.

 

They are completely different destinations and each has its own charms and which or whatever you choose will provide memories for years to come.

[WNcruiser]

This is the best Iceland/Norway combination cruise we found. 14 nights on Princess with 4 stops in each country. It looks like they are offering it again in 2024. 

 

https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=Y318

 

 

[Kari and David]

When booking Iceland I also struggled with land versus cruise and with the hotel rates and car rentals so high I decided to do a 4 Day South Coast Tour with Artic Adventures and than a cruise on Azamara to cover all the posts and sites on the North.  Sorry no Norway but perhaps this fits with a B2B.